So almost two weeks have gone by and I am slowly settling in, finding a routine and getting my bearings in my new neighborhood. What this means is that there has been fairly little sightseeing and much more library time. Good for work, less so for blog material. But I have had some fun and do have some reflections…so here’s what you’ll find in my latest post: A Weekday with Ann (I promise to be brief), A Day in Beyoğlu, Turkish Music is Awesome, How Not to Take a Bosphorus Cruise—Plus lots of photos of cats and architecture (honestly, this blog has everything!). [Note-I've added extra photos that, at times, have nothing to do with what I'm writing about; I just liked them]
[A view of Galata Tower}
A Weekday with Ann:
I am finally able to dedicate my full attention to my dissertation, and, I have to say, I kind of like it. My weekdays are mainly spent in our study room—a spacious room in the institute where we have desks, lockers, a printer, and free coffee and tea. I take coffee breaks out on our roof top terrace (did I mention it has an amazing view of Topkapi Palace?) and lunch in my room (usually watching the Daily Show from the night before). We’re in charge of our own breakfasts and lunches—I’ve been having cereal in the morning (although because our apartments weren’t equipped with bowls, it has been cereal out of a coffee mug), and tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, cheese and bread for lunch. One major thing on the to-do list is start getting all these ingredients at the local street vendors instead of at the grocery store—I’ll let you know how that goes next week. Wrap up work around 5 and head to the gym—itself a blog entry, but I think that will happen after I attend one of the group classes (I’m thinking Aerodans sometime this week—if they don’t accept my petition to add Zumba, of course!). Dinner with everyone at 7 and then free time. Sometimes drinks on the roof, or at a pub, or just reading at a café. In two weeks, we are going to start having Turkish lessons a few times a week after dinner. It’s nice. It’s simple and satisfying, and I feel that it’s achieving a good balance between getting ample work done and still actually living (participating?) in the city. Plus, the weekends (for now anyways), I am keeping free for exploration and more tourist activities.
[Pineapple is all the rage for street food! Plus fruit juice]
[Cats!]
[Olive stand!]
There was also a conference at the Institute this week—Imperial Legacies, co-organized by the University of Birmingham. I saw some great papers on identity in the Ottoman period, representations of the Byzantine Emperor, and many more. Most of the papers focused on the Byzantine and Ottoman periods ( let’s say a little outside of my academic comfort zone), but there was plenty of relevant theory to soak up, plus some stuff is just interesting (14th century Greek illustrated manuscript of the Alexander Romance with Ottoman captions giving a slightly different story—what was that about?!?).
[Beautiful Catholic Church near my building]
A Day in Beyoğlu
So what does one do when a day is free from work? I spent my first free day wandering up and down Istiklal and around Beyoğlu and the environs. I went with friends/fellows to a delicious Veggie Lokanta (a restaurant with pre-made dishes you choose from). And then went on my own to explore. The sheer busy-ness of Istiklal—or perhaps, the constant busy-ness of the street is mind-boggling. There is a lull in the morning hours when the street opens to cars for delivery, but once noon hits, the cobblestones are covered with foot traffic. And there is such a strange range of conveniences available—nice restaurants, coffee shops (including 2 or 3 starbucks and 2 Gloria Jeans), fast food (McDonalds, Burger King, and Pizza hut, along with Turkish fast food), tourist style shops selling scarves and magnets and t-shirts, tobacco stands, book stores, banks, clothing stores, and shoe stores. Oh the shoe stores. I dread the day I decide to go shopping because I know a lot of damage can be done just outside my door—Diesel, United Colors of Benetton, Sephora, more Diesel! I found a ‘mall’ whose bottom three stores were some sort of Best-Buy style mega store with every kind of electronic device available, including the Turkish version of the Magic Bullet (to clarify—the kitchen blender-thing); the top four floors of the ‘mall’ were all clothing stores! And while I ogle a pair of purple leather pumps with flowers, a protest marches down the road…the same road that hours later would have a historic trolley pulling a cart where they were having a photo shoot for a local furniture store complete with Turkish house music blaring horrendously loud. It is a hectic street, to say the least. I took to the side streets—stalls of fish, spices, fruit, olives, cheese followed by meyhanes (taverns) lining both sides of the street—people cramped at small tables and chairs enjoying a beer (or chai) and people watching. I wandered to Taksim Square; I wandered back down to Șișane (the other end of Istiklal).
[historic trolley]
[doner kebap!]
[street cafes]
[book festival--they had Turkish Superman comics!]
[Shoe angels--handing out coupons to a local store]
[statue in Taksim Square]
[Burger King on Istiklal in front of mosque]
That night, I met back up with some of the fellows to go to dinner. Saturday night. Istiklal. It is madness. It is exhausting. Walking is a struggle—the crowd moves you along. The street pulses with life, as if an artery in this city with the constant flow of people in both directions. It has a life to it and an energy, which is mesmerizing—it seems impossible not to stare in every direction at once and find yourself standing, wide-eyed and bewildered on the tram tracks with the trolley ringing down toward you. I kind of love it. The street undulates—that’s what it feels like and sounds like with the heavy beat of house music blaring from the rooftop bars. The whole neighborhood is hills, in either direction shooting off from Istiklal, but the street itself is relatively flat and yet with the multitudes of people it is like walking in the waves.
[the cat is staring at a pigeon]
[Galata Tower]
We wanted a quiet night; we turned off onto a side street, passed a café where two people were drinking coffee over a chess board. There was a kitten on the chess board and it was adorable (unfortunately, no pictures were procured). Dinner at a quiet pizza place. Back at the institute, an offer of Raki (Turkish liquor made from aniseed—cf. Ouzo) was made. The offer was accepted and the four of us went up to the roof (did I mention that the view is amazing up there). Somehow, as these things happen, the four of us became nine as people met people in the hallways or had made their way up to the roof on their own. And a glass of raki turned into an empty bottle and a decision to take a later ferry tour the next morning.
[View from one of the Prince's Islands]
Music
As most of you who know me will admit, I have horrible taste in music. Well, let’s put it differently—I have a tendency to like music that fulfills one of three categories: (1) it’s great for karaoke [ie. 70’s and 80’s rock, 90’s bad pop], (2) you can two-step to it or (3) Andrew Lloyd Weber wrote it. I am myself (what can I say). So perhaps the idea of me writing about or recommending anything music related is a bit far-fetched, but just bear with me on this one. Thursday night, the fellows instituted what (I hope) will become a weekly tradition—Turkish movie night! We got together in the lounge and watched a documentary about music in Istanbul (Crossing the Bridge: the Sound of Istanbul). Check it out. It’s quite good and a great picture of this entirely eclectic city. A huge range of performers and groups were interviewed from psychedelic underground rock, to rap/hip-hop, to folk, to gypsy-influenced, to pop. The picture that emerges of music in Istanbul is this incredibly rich fusion of inspiration and influence, a blending of traditional folk and local rhythms and instruments with mainstream (western) rock, jazz, and more. Performers that I particularly liked (and so you should google them and check them out) were: Aynur (Kurdish folk music), Selim Sesler (an amazing clarinet player from a gypsy town), SiyaSiyabend (a group of street musicians that still play on Istiklal regularly), Duman (an alternative rock band that I’m hoping to go see in October), and Ceza (a rapper that I recommended to Leah, so maybe you’ll hear him on Hip Hop Hooray one of these days—no pressure Leah).
[Cat in front of music store!]
As so often happens, Friday night happily and completely by chance, proved how awesome Turkish music is. Dinner in the neighborhood with the fellows led to the discussion of after dinner drinks. I proposed the guide book game (pick a page number; there are five bars listed on this page; pick a number one through five). This game resulted in the recommendation of Jolly Joker Balans (great name, right?). But it did advertise an in-house brewed caramel beer, and as all my devoted followers know, I love locally brewed beer. So I was in. The bar is on a side street of Istiklal that is home to a number of bars, clubs, and music venues (a good street to know about). The downstairs seemed fine—all wood (not unnecessarily modern or trendy as so many bars have a tendency to be), but everyone was going upstairs. So I went upstairs. You needed a ticket. 35TL (ca. $23). What the hell—let’s see what’s going on upstairs. I get upstairs and there seems to be nothing going on. More people; the dj is playing Ace of Base (not that I was complaining). I go to the bar—at the upstairs bar, they only sell Efes, Corona, or Miller (and those for 10TL each!); the local beer is only sold downstairs. So it seems as if this was a bust—lots of money to pay more money to have a beer I can get anywhere (including Spec’s in Austin). But then the band comes on…They were awesome. It’s a small venue—a narrow, long room with three levels (only a step difference between them). A bar along one side. Great sound quality, great (if at times over the top) lights. The band was incredible, I suppose I would say rock/rock alternative, but it was rich with so many different traditions and sounds (total hybridization!) Guitars, drums, keyboard, saxophone, then tuba, clarinet. And everyone in the bar sang along and swayed and danced to every song. It was such a great experience—we stayed for almost 3 hours or so listening to them. Pinhani (http://pinhani.com/site/index.php) . It was a great night, totally worth the money, and maybe, just maybe, there is a chance that I will come home with decent taste in music (I mean anything is possible).
[Michael Jackson Star]
How to Not Take a Bosphorus Cruise
Sunday I wanted to be a tourist. I decided to take a ‘Bosphorus Cruise’. For those of you not quite in the geographical know, Istanbul spans Asia and Europe, the strip of water that divides the continents, which simultaneously links the Mediterranean Sea with the Black Sea, is known as the Bosphorus. It is pretty common tourist fare in Istanbul to take a ferry boat up and down the Bosphorus photographing the amazing palaces, fortresses, and houses along the coastline, not to mention the imposing bridges and numerous ships (modes of transportation will have to be another post). There are two kinds of Bosphorus tours—one that takes an hour and half total, goes up to the second bridge and comes back to harbor; the second takes roughly all day and goes all the way up the Bosphorus (almost to the Black Sea) and stops at various points along the way. This was the one I had wanted to take and the one that I had talked my fellow fellow into taking with me. This was not the one that we took. We hopped on the first ferry advertising “Bosphorus Tour” without checking on the route or anything really. We also struggled with the whole ‘which-side-to-sit-on-and-sightsee-from’ thing. Based on the map of the ferry route that I had in my guide book, it seemed reasonable to sit facing the Asian side for the route up the Bosphorus and the European side for the route back…but we were not on the ferry route from my guide book—hence the pictures of buildings at a good distance. With all that being said, it was super fun—the coastline of both continents is dotted with summer palaces of the Ottoman emperors, neo-classical consulates, 20th century apartments and houses, and an imposing 15th century fortress. The waters are filled with small fishing boats, sail boats, larger ferries, cruise ships, and huge tankers. And the people are funny—we sat next to these two guys (late 20s-early 30s) and they just took turns taking pictures of each other with different scenes in the background, and I mean a lot of pictures: leaning against the railing, looking off in the distance, waving arms, eyes close with head against post, pointing at castle! It was ridiculous—my conclusion: they were just starting their online dating profiles and were in short supply of useable photos.
[Topkapi Palace from the Bosphorus]
[Çirağan Palace]
[First Bridge and Beylerbeyi Palace (1861)]
[An island nightclub with swimming pool--yes, I will be going here]
[Rumeli Hisari, 1452]
[First Bridge]
The rest of my day was spent avoiding buying scarves in the spice bazaar, meandering through the streets of the old city and sitting in the gardens outside of Topkapi Palace. It is very easy to wander around Istanbul (especially in Sultanahmet and Beyoğlu) and get the impression that all one does in this city is eat, drink, shop and walk around some more. And certainly from an afternoon on Istiklal, one might be convinced that the city is constantly in motion, but one of my favorite things about life here is the appreciation of sitting. Just sitting and watching. Maybe at a Meyhane or café, but also on steps outside of a mosque, or in the grass in front of the museum, or just on the curb along a busy street. Sitting down and watching all the madness pass by has become one of my favorite things to do.
[Guess where this is]
[Entrance to Topkapi Palace]
[Haghia Sophia]
[At the docks]
What’s in store…an exciting trip to an archaeological excavation next Friday! Stay tuned, keep reading! I also need to write a post about all the things I’m missing back home—this past week, it definitely had to be the Journey concert and the consumption of bacon J
